Publishing Scotland at 50: International and environment drive the agenda
The Scottish trade body is marking its Golden Anniversary year with an increased global remit and ramped-up sustainability program, despite a tricky time for arts funding in the country.
Publishing Scotland (PS) celebrates its 50th anniversary this year — and it is fair to say the most tumultuous times for the trade body and its members have occurred in its current leader’s tenure. Since Marion Sinclair took over as c.e.o in 2008, there has been a global financial crisis, a huge upswing in digitisation, Brexit and a global pandemic to name just a few flashpoints and issues which have tested the Scottish trade.
PS has justifiably been making a bit of a thing of its Golden Anniversary, celebrating the moment when a handful of trade professionals got together in 1974 to form the Scottish General Publishers Association (it became the Scottish Publishers Association soon after, with the PS branding launching in 2007). But Sinclair and her organisation have eyes focused firmly on the future.
Partly this is due to the nature of the job, Sinclair says, and partly because even trickier issues than those previously mentioned may be on the horizon. She says: “One of our stated aims going forward is on environmental issues and to have a more sustainable publishing environment. Part of the way we do that will be with our new policy development manager who will be taking us forward on [green issues]. But there are a whole number of things coming down the track, not least AI, the European Accessibility Act, a new code of conduct detailing with ethics…All of these we need to have a firm grip on for our members because if you’re an independent publisher—like almost all of our members—you don’t really have time to lift your eyes up and say ‘What policies that are coming down the line do I need to be across?’”
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